The English CATHOLIKE CHRISTIAN OR The SAINTS Vtopia By THOMAS de Eschallers de la MORE an unprofitable Servant of Jesus Christ Of Graies-Inne Barrister and Minister of the Gospel of eternall salvation In the Yeer of Grace and Truth 1649. A Treatise consisting of four SECTIONS 1 JOSVAHS Resolution 2 Of the Common LAW 3 Of PHYSICK 4 Of DIVINITY Josh 24.15 As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Deut. 32.45 46 47. Luke 6.31 1 Pet. 4.8 Prov. 19.29 Heb. 13.1 1 John 4.7 8. Eccles. 12. vers 13 14. Rom. 12. Chap. Chap. 13. Read these Chapters and texts of Scripture with diligencehumility and integrity of heart in the name and fear of God Sâ—â—â—â— Amen LONDON Printed by R. Leybourn in Monks-well street and are to be sold at Graies-Inne 1649. To his most excellent MAJESTY CHARLES King of Great Britain France and Ireland DRead Sovereign my Lord the King may it please your Highness onely once to look over this ensuing Treatise and it will not repent thee ô King to peruse it and read it again and again entituled a Protestation concerning the Church and Common-wealth of England written almost six yeers since viz. in June 1641. by a loyal-hearted subject and a faithfull servant now in all humility prostrate beneath your Majesties feet May your favour descend as dew upon the grass and let me not behold the messengers of death in your countenance A shrub may grow neer unto a Cedar High and low great and small The rich and poor meet together The Lord is the maker of them all I would put a knife to my throat were I man given to appetite or desirous of dainties I am not called to sit and eat with a Ruler but to attend and wait untill I have delivered mine errand to the King it behoveth me therfore to consider diligently what to say Many will intreat the favour of the Prince and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts But I was born for adversity have bin trained up in afflictioÌ„s have eaten my bread in sorrow and do desire to appear my self a true Nathanael an upright Loyalist at all times Not subjection alone but duty my dread Lord comandest my greatest observance and most obedientiall gratitude for I am a branch spronted from a root this many ages hath grown spread flourished lived and revived in the light of the countenance and sun-shine days of divers Kings of England your Royall Progenitors whose Princely bounty and most munificent constant favours unto mine Ancestors hath been as a cloud of the latter rain videlicet Sir Hugh de Pounts un chivaler que vint de Normandie ove le Conquerour transacto regimine Regis Haroldi Secundi Laurentius de la More qui erat in exercitu Willielmi Bastardi Regis in Conquestu suo Regni Angliae c. Dominus Galfridus de Scalariis miles Sir Thomas de Eschallers Sir John de Chalers Knights Scalarii isti sunt editi atavo Galfridi senioris Hardwino de Scalariis Domino totius Baroniae de Caxton in Comitate Cantabrigiae tempore Willielmi Regis Angliae c. And Sir Thomas de la More Knight who was a Courtier in the Reigns of Edward the First Edward the Second and Edward the Third and was a Servant and wrote the life of King Edward the Second And my Grandfather who was Servant to King Henry the Eighth and divers others of my Ancestors who received most Princely rewards and gifts from their Masters the Kings of England and had great possessions and lands given unto them in the County of Oxon. c. Now therefore if I should not in most humble manner acknowledge this great munificence and pay my due tribute of Loyalty for such Royall favours I should be branded with the blackest note of Infamy and be chronicled ingratefull Moreover as I am a member of the body of Christ my supream Head Christian duty binds me not onely to pray for Kings and all that are in authority but to labour with my hands and assay all lawfull means possible for the building up and repairing of the breaches which all our sins have made in that mystical Temple the Church of God If David hath committed a great wickednesse and sinned secretly and the Prophet tell him Thou art the man he must presently confesse I have sinned against the Lord and the Lord will put away his sin and he shall not die Psal 51. 2 Sam. 12. If Peter denie his Master and the Lord looke back in mercie upon him he cannot but goe forth immediately and weepe bitterly If God hath humbled Ahab King of Israel Nebuchadnezar King of Babylon the Ninivites and Manasseth King of Judah that Mirrour of mercie and miracle of Gods unchangeable love and everlasting kindnesse and good will towards sinfull men they shall make an humble acknowledgement of their transgressions repent and turn unto the Lord with fasting weeping and mourning And the Lord will turn away his fierce wrath he will cancell his decree of temporall punishment and reverse his judgements denounced against them If that wise King Solomon multiply his whoredoms commit Spirituall Fornications and Idolatry he must become an Ecclesiastes in recantation of his vanities If King Saul make an unadvised adjuration to hinder the victory to retard the successe and weaken the hands of those that fight the Lords Battels Shall Jonathan die who hath wrought salvation in Israel God forbid the people may rescue him that he die not If Joab Captain of the Host advise a disconsolate son-lamenting King to speak comfortably unto his Princes his people his friends and servants that being ashamed have gotten themselves by stealth into their Cities and habitations The Kiâ—â— will presently arise and sit in the gate that all the people throughout all the Tribes of Israel and Judah may be at strife to bring the King back to his house If the people say unto him Thou shalt not goe forth to Battell for if we fly away they will not care for us neither if halfe of us die will they care for us but now thou art worth ten thousand of us therefore now it is better that thou succour us out of the City the King will give them a gracious Answer and say unto them what seemeth you best I will doe If the Prophet Jeremy counsell the captiv'd King by yielding to save his life let him obey the voice of the Lord so it shall be well unto him and his soule shall live A wicked man hardeneth his face but as for the upright he directeth his way There is no Wisdome nor Understanding nor Counsell against the Lord. Let no man presume to touch Gods people the Servants the Prophets the Anointed of the Lord for he reproved Kings for their sakes Let no man speak evil of those things which he knoweth not lest he perish in the gain-saying of Core Let no wicked Pharoah exalt himselfe against Gods people lest the Lord
harden his heart and speak thus unto him in the fiercenesse of his wrath Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth Thinkest thou ô man that doest these things that thou shalt escape the judgement of God or despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance But after thy hardnesse and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God who will tender to every man according to his deeds for there is no respect of persons with God O that wee knew the time of our visitation and that wee could see in this our day the things that belong unto our peace least the Lord withdraw the light of his countenance from us and least the mercie and loving kiâ—â—ness of our God be hid from our eyes Thus saith the Lord to Israel I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their own thoughts a people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face that sacrificeth in Gardens c. And our most holy Redeemer and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ thus compassionately bemoaneth a stif-necked disobedient hard-harted gain-saying people O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee How often would I have gathered thy children together even as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate and the Apostle exhorteth us Whilst it is said To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evill heart of beliefe in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily whilst it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sin Heb. 3. Let us therefore provoke the Lord to wrath no more by our sins but let us enter into a holy Covenant with God to walke uprightly before the Lord as Noah Abraham Moses Joshua Job Daniel King David and all the Prophets Apostles and servants of the Lord have done before us and let us resolve to serve the Lord our God with all our hearts with all our souls and withall our might Then shall our captivity and all our sufferings and afflictions worke together for the best for the Lord will set his eyes upon us for good and he will bring us again unto our Lands and to our huoses and he wil build us and not pull us down he will plant us and not pluck us up and he will give us an heart to know him that he is the Lord and we shall be his people and he will be our God for we shall return unto him with our whole hearts and we shall be like Trees planted by the Rivers of water that will bring forth fruit in season our leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever we doe shall prosper The ungodly are not so but are like the chaffe which the winde driveth away The Lord will deliver them to be removed into all the Kingdoms of the earth for their hurt to be a reproach and a proverb a taunt and a curse in all places whether he shall drive them And he will send the Sword the Famine and the Pestilence among them till they be consumed from the Land that he gave unto them and their Fathers For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish Your Majesty may read in the Chronicles of holy Writ That King Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord as did David his Father and he tooke away the Sodomites out of the Land and removed all the Idols that Abijam his Father had made and also Maachah his mother even her he removed from being Queen because she made an Idol in a Grove and Asa destroyed her Idol and burnt it by the Brooke Kidron but the high places were not removed neverthelesse Asa his heart was perfect with the Lord all his dayes Also King Azariah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his Father Amaziah had done save that the high places were not removed the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places And the Lord smote the King so that hee was a Leaper unto the day of his death and dwelt in a severall house and Jothan the Kings son was over the house judging the people of the Land And King Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his Father did He removed the high places and brake the Images and cut down the Groves c. he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him there was none like him among all the Kings of Judah nor any that went before him For he clave to the Lord and departed not from following him but kept his Comandements which the Lord comanded Moses And the Lord was with him and he prospered whither soever he went forth and he rebelled against the King of Assyria and served him not And King Josiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the wayes of David his Father and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left And the King sent and they gathered unto him all the Elders of Judah and of Jerusalem and the King went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem with them and the Priests and the Prophets and all the people both small and great and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. And the King stood by a pillar and made a Covenant before the Lord to walke before the Lord and to keep his Comandments and his Testimonies and his Statutes with all their heart and all their soule to perform the words of this Covenant that were written in this book and all the people stood to the Covenant And the King comanded all the vessels that were made for Baal and for the Grove and for the Hoast of heaven to be brought forth out of the Temple of the Lord and he burnt them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carryed the Ashes of them unto Bethel And he put down the Idolatrous Priests whom the Kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places c. Moreover the workers with familiar Spirits and the Wizards and the Images and the Idols and all the abominations that were spyed in the Land of Judah and in Jerusalem did Josiah put away that he might performe the words of the Law which were
blindnesse of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousnesse to worke all uncleannesse with greedinesse But ye have not so learned Christ if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of your minde and that ye put on that new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse And the same Apostle saith 1 Cor. 6. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind c. shall inherit the Kingdome of God And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Now if these and such like places of Scripture will not worke upon prophane worldlings and excite them to repentance and amendment of life I mean such riotous persons as have beene lately posted in our Streets being styled the Sucklington Faction or Sucklings Roating boyes I leave them to that dreadful doom pronounced by the Preacher Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heartche are thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgement Eccles 11. Because sentence against an evill works is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sonnes of men is fully set in them to do evill Though a sinner â—o evill an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that feare God which feare before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his dayes which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God There is a vanity which is done upon the earth that there be just men to whom it happeneth according to the worke of the wicked againe there be wicked men to whom is happeneth according to the work of the righteous I said that this also is vanity Eccles 8. But yet for the comfort of the godly which suffer for the Name of Christ and for righteousnesse sake we read in the 2 Pet. 2. When the Cities of Sodome and Gomorrah were destroyed being made an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly that God delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawfull deeds The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished But chiefly them that walke after the flesh in the lust of uncleannesse and despise Government Presumptuous are they self-willed they are not affraid to speak evill of dignities whereas Angels which are greater in power and might bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord. I am perswaded that if godly understanding Preachers were sent abroad into the severall parts and corners of his Majesties Realms to tell the people of their sinnes and if good laws were put in execution for the punishing of offenders wickednesse and prophanesse would not be so much in fashion as it is I have often wondered that albeit the Parliaments of England which like learned and wise Physicians have alwayes been very diligent to provide choise Antidotes against the distempers of the Common-wealth by making good Laws and Statutes yet they never truly tooke into consideration and seriously weighed the miserable and deplored state of the Church so as to apply apt remedies for the redresse of those grievances before mentioned Surely I am even ashamed to thinke what horrible contempt and disgrace is cast upon the meaner sort of the Clergy those Reverend Pastors that have the charge of our souls and whose Callings are sacred How vilely are they accounted of in the Countrey by ignorant scoffing irreligious vaine persons who can afford them no better titles then these viz. poore journey-men schollers ragged priests sillyratts and the like But I am so far from casting the least blemish or aspersion of infamy upon the noble Professors of the liberall Arts and Sciences and especially I am so far from dishonouring of the Tribe of Levi the lot of Gods own inheritance that the Elders which rule well I account worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine For the labourer is worthy of his reward 1 Tim. 5.17 18. I could wish that the large possessions and the superabundant extravegant revenues of Bishops Deanes and Chapters or at least that part of them were bestowed towards the erecting of Churches and Chappels of ease in the severall parts and places of our Kingdomes where they are wanting And towards the maintaining of learned and godly Preachers for the better growth and increase of Religion And I could wish that those lay Parsons that hold Impropriations that the Lords and Tenants of Abbey Lands who pay no tythes and that That Ignavum pecui the Fraternity of sluggish Drones in our Universities I mean those Masters and Fellows of Colledges who mis-imploy their wealth which their Founders endowed them with all for the advancement of Learning and Religion And they themselves are no better than Sots whose filthy and ungodly lives I compare and paralell with the wickedness of the Monks and Epicures of old And I hold them fitter subjects to serve such a Master as that beast and monster of men Heliogabolus was than to lead such Frier-like and Monastick lives as they do making a vain profession of piety and learning under the most religious Christian Prince in Europe To say no more These men are guilty of one very soule fault which I will not mention for shame But they may guesse at my meaning in these old Verses as I finde them in Chaucer in the Monks Prologue which each of them may apply to himself as the case stands with him in particular And it is thus Thou wouldst be a trede foule a right Hadst thou as great leave as thou hast might To perform all thy lust in ingendrure Thou hadst begotten many a creature In truth I could wish that all those above-mentioned especially and that every one of us besides according to our severall abilities c. would contribute cheerfully and freely to this pious work of providing things honest for our spirituall Pastors and give them due honour and necessary allowance who do labour in the word doctrine And last of all I could wish that the honourable Court of Parliament by the direction of almighty God would consult about the promoting establishing and maintaining a faithful learned painful preaching Ministry
estate anent the Churches Cherish no man more then a good Pastor hate no man more then a proud Puritan thinking it one of your fairest Styles to be called a loving nourish father to the Church seeing all the Churches within your Dominions planted with good Pastors the Schooles the Seminaries of the Church maintained the Doctrine and Discipl ne preserved in purity according to Gods Word a sufficient provision for their sustentation a comely Order in their policy pride punished humility advanced and they so to reverence their supetiours and their flocks them as the flourishing of your Church in piety peace and learning may be one of the chiefe points of your earthly glory being ever alike waie with both the extremities as well as ye represse the vaine Puritan so not to suffer proud Papall Bishops but as some for their qualities will deserve to be preferred before others so chaine them with such bonds as may preserve that State from creeping to corruption And againe in his preface to that excellent booke He saith I charge you as ever you think to deserve my fatherly blessing to follow and put in practise as far as lieth in you the precept hereafter following and if you follow the contrary course I take the great God to record that this book shall one day be a witnesse betwixt me and you and shall procure to be ratified in heaven the curse that in that case I give unto you For I protest before that Great God I had rather not be a Father and childlesse than be a Father of wicked children This weighty charge of a most godly Prince and a carefull loving Father so faithfully diligent and very industrious to provide for the safety and welfare of his posterity and Kingdomes will assuredly take deepe impression and firme root in the heart of the King and the Kings Sonne The Lord said of Moses Numb 12.7 He is faithfull in all my house And of Abraham Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his chidren and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgement that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him Childrens children are the Crown of old men and the glory of children are their fathers Prov. 17.6 A wise son heareth his fathers instruction but a scorner heareth not rebuke Prov. 13.1 and Prov. 4. Heare ye children the instruction of a father and attend to know understanding For I give you good doctrine forsake you not my law For I was my fathers son tender and only beloved in the fight of my mother He taught me also and said unto me let thine heart reteine my words Keep my Comandements and live Take fast hold of instruction let her not go keep her for she is thy life Read the whole Chapter Prov. 4. My son keep my words and lay vp my commandements with thee Keep my commandements and live and my law as the apple of thine eye Bind them upon thy fingers write them upon the table of thine heart Prov. 7. The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoyce and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him Thy father and thy mother shall be glad and she that bare him shall have ioy of him My son give me thine heart and let thine eye observe thy wayes Folly is to him that is destitute of wisdome but a man of understanding walketh uprightly Without counsell purposes are disappointed but in the multitude of Counsellors they are established Apply thine heart unto instruction and thine eares unto the words of knowledge Hear thou my son and be wise and guide thine heart in the way Hâ—arken unto thy father that begate thee and despise not thy mother when she is old Prov. 22.22 and Prov. 15 21 22. Now if we are bound by the Lawes of God and Nature to observe the godly precepts and to hearken unto the good instructions of our earthly fathers How diligently should we keep the Comandements of our Father which is in Heaven How ready should we be to do his Will to attend and obey his voice calling unto us in his Word and to say with Samuel Speak Lord for we thy servants do hear Again We have given the fathers of our flesh reverence shall we not much rather give honâ—ur and obedience unto the Father of Spirits and live Heb. 12.9 We read in Deut. 6. After that Moses had repeated the ten Comandements he taught the people that the end of the Law was obedience and he exhorted them thereto saying Heare O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might And these words which I comand thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up And thou shalt binde them for a signe upon thine hands and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the pâ—sts of thy house and on thy gates See Deut. 4.9 and Chap. 10.12 and Chap. 11.18 19. and Chap. 30.15 16. and Chap. 32.46 47. The Lord our God who is a God full of compassion and gracious long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth spake of the people of Israel saying O that were such a heart in them that they would feare me and keep my Commandements alwayes that it might be well with them and with their children for ever Deut. 5.29 If the wicked will return from all his sinnes that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawfull and right he shall surely live and shall not dye All his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him but in his righteousnesse that he hath done he shall live Cast away all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 18. vers 21 22 31. Wash ye make you cleane put away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evill Learn to do well seek judgement c. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool Isai 1.16 17 18. This is a true saying and by all means worthy to be received that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Mat. 11.28 They that be whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Goe ye and learne what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the